Searching for bugs and wildlife at Attingham park.

I try and write about things as soon as they happen, sometimes though i half write posts and then get wrapped up in other things, my bad. Last week we all had a morning out at Attingham park, our friend Chris had stopped at ours the night before and we managed to kidnap him for the morning and took him along with us which the boys were very excited about. Mrs M had been before but even though its not far from ours I had not been. We managed to get out of the house at a reasonable time, even if Chris did have a lie in (lie ins are unheard of in our house).

We arrived at our destination and after flashing our new National trust memberships we headed on to our adventure. The grounds were beautiful and although there was a chill in the air and Mrs M needed my shirt to keep warm, the sun was shining and was desperately trying to warm the place up. The boys were in their usual excited mood, laughing and running about.

There was a 'searching for bugs and insects' activity on which the boys couldn't wait to join in with so armed with a magnifying glass, tray and sheets with pictures of wildlife to search for, off we went turning over rocks, rummaging through bushes and checking the skies.

It wasn't long before we made it to the orchard which I think was what kicked off the last two weeks of apple scrumping (which I will write about very soon). The walled garden around the fruit and veg being grown was like Mrs M's personal heaven and she walked round in awe of all the crops and was even more excited when she saw the beehives (one day we'll have that self sustaining life that she dreams of).

The flowers there were stunning too...

Seth was desperate to get to the play area and I was parched so we headed there next. Clearly the boys had even more energy to burn off and who were we to deny them that. The play area was great, lots of climbing things handcrafted from wood and long dark tunnels built into hills, great fun for any inquisitive child, although the tunnels were slightly to small for grown ups and me and Chris ended up with neck cramp.

And then it was time to head back for lunch and i suppose we needed to let our hostage go back to his wife. So we headed back to the car. It was a great way to spend a couple of hours before Lunch the adventure got me wondering where our next National Trust adventure will be, any ideas?

"Some painters transform the sun into a yellow spot, others transform a yellow spot into the sun."

Well it's been another glorious day in Shropshire and as usual we've made the most of it trying to keep out and about. It was lovely this morning being on a blanket in the garden at 8am reading a book while the boys played at the water table, but if there's any truth in what the met office is currently saying about tomorrow's weather we'll be lucky to get any sunshine! Got to stay positive though! Today while we were out in the car we spotted some rapeseed fields from the road and headed over to find somewhere to park for some quick photos.

I love the colour of the fields and couldn't wait to get snapping surrounded by all that yellow. Family photos are so important to me no matter how trivial the situation may be (like pulling up at the side of the road), I want the boys to have great memories of growing up because I don't have as many as I would have liked. I want them to look at old photos and think 'growing up was amazing'.

Opeie was excited by all the yellow flowers but that could be because of his new love of curious George and the man with the yellow hat. We will definitely be on the lookout for Sunflower and Poppy fields next.